Last updated February 25, 2026

AGREEMENT TO OUR LEGAL TERMS

We are Album of the Year ("Company," "we," "us," "our").

We operate the website http://www.albumoftheyear.org (the "Site"), as well as any other related products and services that refer or link to these legal terms (the "Legal Terms") (collectively, the "Services").

You can contact us by email at [email protected].

These Legal Terms constitute a legally binding agreement made between you, whether personally or on behalf of an entity ("you"), and Album of the Year, concerning your access to and use of the Services. You agree that by accessing the Services, you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by all of these Legal Terms. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ALL OF THESE LEGAL TERMS, THEN YOU ARE EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED FROM USING THE SERVICES AND YOU MUST DISCONTINUE USE IMMEDIATELY.

Supplemental terms and conditions or documents that may be posted on the Services from time to time are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to make changes or modifications to these Legal Terms from time to time. We will alert you about any changes by updating the "Last updated" date of these Legal Terms, and you waive any right to receive specific notice of each such change. It is your responsibility to periodically review these Legal Terms to stay informed of updates. You will be subject to, and will be deemed to have been made aware of and to have accepted, the changes in any revised Legal Terms by your continued use of the Services after the date such revised Legal Terms are posted.

The Services are intended for users who are at least 13 years of age. All users who are minors in the jurisdiction in which they reside (generally under the age of 18) must have the permission of, and be directly supervised by, their parent or guardian to use the Services. If you are a minor, you must have your parent or guardian read and agree to these Legal Terms prior to you using the Services.

1. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Our intellectual property
We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our Services, including all source code, databases, functionality, software, website designs, audio, video, text, photographs, and graphics in the Services (collectively, the "Content"), as well as the trademarks, service marks, and logos contained therein (the "Marks").

Our Content and Marks are protected by copyright and trademark laws (and various other intellectual property rights and unfair competition laws) and treaties in the United States and around the world.

The Content and Marks are provided in or through the Services "AS IS" for your personal, non-commercial use only.

Your use of our Services
Subject to your compliance with these Legal Terms, including the "PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES" section below, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to:

access the Services; and
download or print a copy of any portion of the Content to which you have properly gained access,

solely for your personal, non-commercial use.

Except as set out in this section or elsewhere in our Legal Terms, no part of the Services and no Content or Marks may be copied, reproduced, aggregated, republished, uploaded, posted, publicly displayed, encoded, translated, transmitted, distributed, sold, licensed, or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose whatsoever, without our express prior written permission.

2. USER REPRESENTATIONS

By using the Services, you represent and warrant that: (1) all registration information you submit will be true, accurate, current, and complete; (2) you will maintain the accuracy of such information and promptly update such registration information as necessary; (3) you have the legal capacity and you agree to comply with these Legal Terms; (4) you are not under the age of 13; (5) you are not a minor in the jurisdiction in which you reside, or if a minor, you have received parental permission to use the Services; (6) you will not access the Services through automated or non-human means, whether through a bot, script or otherwise; (7) you will not use the Services for any illegal or unauthorized purpose; and (8) your use of the Services will not violate any applicable law or regulation.

If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current, or incomplete, we have the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Services (or any portion thereof).

3. USER REGISTRATION

You may be required to register to use the Services. Registration is done through third-party authentication services (Facebook, Google, or Apple). We do not store passwords. We reserve the right to remove, reclaim, or change a username you select if we determine, in our sole discretion, that such username is inappropriate, obscene, or otherwise objectionable.

4. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES

You may not access or use the Services for any purpose other than that for which we make the Services available. The Services may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors except those that are specifically endorsed or approved by us.

As a user of the Services, you agree not to:

Systematically retrieve data or other content from the Services to create or compile, directly or indirectly, a collection, compilation, database, or directory without written permission from us.
Trick, defraud, or mislead us and other users, especially in any attempt to learn sensitive account information such as user passwords.
Circumvent, disable, or otherwise interfere with security-related features of the Services.
Disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Services.
Use any information obtained from the Services in order to harass, abuse, or harm another person.
Use the Services in a manner inconsistent with any applicable laws or regulations.
Engage in unauthorized framing of or linking to the Services.
Upload or transmit viruses, Trojan horses, or other material that interferes with any party's uninterrupted use and enjoyment of the Services.
Engage in any automated use of the system, such as using scripts to send comments or messages, or using any data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools.
Attempt to impersonate another user or person or use the username of another user.
Sell or otherwise transfer your profile.

5. USER-GENERATED CONTENT

Ownership and License
You retain all ownership rights to the reviews, ratings, lists, and other content you post on Album of the Year ("User Content"). By posting User Content, you grant Album of the Year a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, and transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, display, distribute, and promote your User Content across our platform, social media channels, email newsletters, and marketing materials. This license allows us to showcase user reviews and ratings to help other music fans discover albums.

Content Standards
You agree that your User Content will not:

Contain hate speech, harassment, threats, or discriminatory language
Include spam, advertisements, or promotional content unrelated to music
Violate copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights
Contain malicious code, viruses, or scripts designed to harm the platform
Manipulate ratings or reviews through fake accounts, bots, or coordinated campaigns
Include personal information about other individuals without their consent

Content Removal
We reserve the right to remove any User Content that violates these Terms, our community guidelines, or applicable laws. We may also suspend or terminate accounts that repeatedly violate our content standards. Content removal decisions are made at our sole discretion.

6. ALBUM DATA AND THIRD-PARTY INFORMATION

Album information, metadata, cover art, release dates, and artist details displayed on Album of the Year are sourced from third-party services including but not limited to iTunes API, Spotify, and user submissions. While we strive for accuracy, we do not guarantee that all album information is complete, current, or error-free. We are not responsible for inaccuracies in album metadata or missing releases.

7. ACCOUNT TERMINATION AND BANS

We reserve the right to suspend or permanently ban user accounts for:

Repeated violations of our Terms of Use or community guidelines
Rating manipulation, review bombing, or coordinated spam campaigns
Harassment of other users or abusive behavior
Creating multiple accounts to circumvent bans or manipulate ratings
Any activity that threatens the integrity of our platform or community

Banned users may not create new accounts. Account termination decisions are final and made at our sole discretion.

Account Deletion
Users may delete their account at any time through account settings. Upon account deletion, your profile and content will be removed from public view. We may retain certain data for legal, security, or operational purposes as outlined in our Privacy Policy.

8. SUBSCRIPTION AND PAID FEATURES

If you purchase an ad-free subscription or other paid features:

Subscriptions are sold as a one-time annual purchase at the rate disclosed at time of purchase
All subscription fees are non-refundable except as required by law
Subscriptions are valid for one year from date of purchase
Subscriptions do not auto-renew; you must purchase again to continue after expiration
If your subscription expires, you will lose access to premium features but retain your account, reviews, and ratings
We reserve the right to modify subscription pricing with notice to users

9. AUTOMATED ACCESS AND DATA USAGE

You may not:

Use bots, scrapers, or automated tools to access Album of the Year without our written permission
Collect user data, reviews, or ratings for use outside of Album of the Year
Overload our servers through excessive automated requests
Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract our source code or algorithms

If you are interested in API access or data partnerships, please contact us at [email protected].

10. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The Album of the Year name, logo, design, and original content are protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. You may not use our branding, copy our site design, or reproduce our original content without permission.

Album cover art displayed on our site is used under fair use for purposes of criticism, commentary, and music discovery. All album artwork remains the property of respective copyright holders.

11. COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

We respect the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that any material available on or through the Services infringes upon any copyright you own or control, please immediately notify us using the contact information provided below (a "Notification"). A copy of your Notification will be sent to the person who posted or stored the material addressed in the Notification.

Please be advised that pursuant to federal law you may be held liable for damages if you make material misrepresentations in a Notification. Thus, if you are not sure that material located on or linked to by the Services infringes your copyright, you should consider first contacting an attorney.

All Notifications should include the following:

A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed
Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed
Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity
Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and email address
A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law
A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed

Notifications should be sent to: [email protected]

12. THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES AND CONTENT

The Services may contain links to other websites ("Third-Party Websites") as well as content belonging to or originating from third parties ("Third-Party Content"). Such Third-Party Websites and Third-Party Content are not investigated, monitored, or checked for accuracy, appropriateness, or completeness by us, and we are not responsible for any Third-Party Websites accessed through the Services or any Third-Party Content posted on, available through, or installed from the Services.

13. SERVICES MANAGEMENT

We reserve the right, but not the obligation, to: (1) monitor the Services for violations of these Legal Terms; (2) take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in our sole discretion, violates the law or these Legal Terms; (3) refuse, restrict access to, limit the availability of, or disable any of your Contributions or any portion thereof; (4) remove from the Services or otherwise disable all files and content that are excessive in size or are in any way burdensome to our systems; and (5) otherwise manage the Services in a manner designed to protect our rights and property and to facilitate the proper functioning of the Services.

14. PRIVACY POLICY

We care about data privacy and security. Please review our Privacy Policy: https://www.albumoftheyear.org/privacy.php. By using the Services, you agree to be bound by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Legal Terms.

Please be advised the Services are hosted in the United States. If you access the Services from any other region of the world with laws or other requirements governing personal data collection, use, or disclosure that differ from applicable laws in the United States, then through your continued use of the Services, you are transferring your data to the United States, and you expressly consent to have your data transferred to and processed in the United States.

15. TERM AND TERMINATION

These Legal Terms shall remain in full force and effect while you use the Services. WITHOUT LIMITING ANY OTHER PROVISION OF THESE LEGAL TERMS, WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO, IN OUR SOLE DISCRETION AND WITHOUT NOTICE OR LIABILITY, DENY ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE SERVICES (INCLUDING BLOCKING CERTAIN IP ADDRESSES), TO ANY PERSON FOR ANY REASON OR FOR NO REASON, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION FOR BREACH OF ANY REPRESENTATION, WARRANTY, OR COVENANT CONTAINED IN THESE LEGAL TERMS OR OF ANY APPLICABLE LAW OR REGULATION. WE MAY TERMINATE YOUR USE OR PARTICIPATION IN THE SERVICES OR DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT AND ANY CONTENT OR INFORMATION THAT YOU POSTED AT ANY TIME, WITHOUT WARNING, IN OUR SOLE DISCRETION.

If we terminate or suspend your account for any reason, you are prohibited from registering and creating a new account under your name, a fake or borrowed name, or the name of any third party, even if you may be acting on behalf of the third party.

16. MODIFICATIONS AND INTERRUPTIONS

We reserve the right to change, modify, or remove the contents of the Services at any time or for any reason at our sole discretion without notice. However, we have no obligation to update any information on our Services. We will not be liable to you or any third party for any modification, price change, suspension, or discontinuance of the Services.

17. GOVERNING LAW

These Legal Terms and your use of the Services are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Kansas applicable to agreements made and to be entirely performed within the State of Kansas, without regard to its conflict of law principles.

18. DISPUTE RESOLUTION

Informal Negotiations
To expedite resolution and control the cost of any dispute, controversy, or claim related to these Legal Terms (each a "Dispute" and collectively, the "Disputes") brought by either you or us (individually, a "Party" and collectively, the "Parties"), the Parties agree to first attempt to negotiate any Dispute (except those Disputes expressly provided below) informally for at least thirty (30) days before initiating arbitration.

Binding Arbitration
If the Parties are unable to resolve a Dispute through informal negotiations, the Dispute (except those Disputes expressly excluded below) will be finally and exclusively resolved by binding arbitration. The arbitration shall be commenced and conducted under the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") and, where appropriate, the AAA's Supplementary Procedures for Consumer Related Disputes ("AAA Consumer Rules").

19. CORRECTIONS

There may be information on the Services that contains typographical errors, inaccuracies, or omissions, including descriptions, pricing, availability, and various other information. We reserve the right to correct any errors, inaccuracies, or omissions and to change or update the information on the Services at any time, without prior notice.

20. DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN AS-IS AND AS-AVAILABLE BASIS. YOU AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL BE AT YOUR SOLE RISK. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICES AND YOUR USE THEREOF, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

21. LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY

IN NO EVENT WILL WE OR OUR DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, OR AGENTS BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFIT, LOST REVENUE, LOSS OF DATA, OR OTHER DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED HEREIN, OUR LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION, WILL AT ALL TIMES BE LIMITED TO THE LESSER OF THE AMOUNT PAID, IF ANY, BY YOU TO US OR $100.00 USD.

22. INDEMNIFICATION

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us harmless, including our subsidiaries, affiliates, and all of our respective officers, agents, partners, and employees, from and against any loss, damage, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees and expenses, made by any third party due to or arising out of: (1) your Contributions; (2) use of the Services; (3) breach of these Legal Terms; (4) any breach of your representations and warranties set forth in these Legal Terms; (5) your violation of the rights of a third party, including but not limited to intellectual property rights; or (6) any overt harmful act toward any other user of the Services with whom you connected via the Services.

23. MISCELLANEOUS

These Legal Terms and any policies or operating rules posted by us on the Services or in respect to the Services constitute the entire agreement and understanding between you and us. Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Legal Terms shall not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. These Legal Terms operate to the fullest extent permissible by law. We may assign any or all of our rights and obligations to others at any time.